“These broad sanctions against a media group, which receives its funding from its government similar to the way the US’s PBS and VOA media companies do, are both idiotic and hypocritical,” Kwiatkowski told Sputnik. “It isn’t election interference exactly that worries the [US government]. It is the reporting from these Russian outlets that counters, often very truthfully and compellingly, the US narrative, particularly relating to Europe and the Middle East."

“Too much attention and information about how those wars are progressing, being funded, and the kinds of things our allies in Kiev and West Jerusalem are doing in the conduct of those wars does not make the incumbent party of the White House popular, and they wish to stop Americans from asking uncomfortable questions,” she concluded.

“Sanctioning information outlets is popular in authoritarian countries, but sanctions in general only attract attention to poor political decision-making and political fear and are easily worked around.”

“It's incredible to see how the West is continuing to ignore a new multipolar world that is arising,” Pacini told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. “These reactions by Western countries are pretty ridiculous because they're like trying to force the other countries of the world to follow a kind of hegemony that is falling.”

“I think this will be like a boomerang coming back to them again and new sanctions will mean new problems for all the Western countries,” he claimed.

"The actions by the Department of the Treasury in levying new sanctions against RT, Sputnik, and other Russian media organizations has made it impossible for me to continue my work as an outside contributor for RT and Sputnik, as well as participating in interviews and other collaborations with other Russian media," the former US Marine Corps intelligence officer posted on social media.

"I am deeply grateful for the professionalism of all of my Russian colleagues over the past several years, and am proud to have made their acquaintance," Ritter concluded, saying that he regrets "the actions of [the US] government in silencing legitimate journalistic outlets."

"I would also like the government to think about building nuclear power plants in the Russian Far East. This plan should take into account both the current needs as well as the needs we anticipate in future among businesses and our citizens. And, of course, it should take into account the long term," Putin said.

"We see that business ties, trade routes are reorienting to the East and the Global South. Our Far Eastern regions provide direct gateway to these promising and developing markets and allow us to overcome the barriers that some Western elites are trying to impose on the world," the Russian leader said at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).